Circular saws
Circular Saws were a type of small rotating weapon and among the earliest kinds of weapons used in Robot Wars. They were designed purely to slice and grind through opponents’ armour, electronics and wheels/tracks in a designated path, with the intention of causing serious or terminal damage. The first robots to use circular saws were House Robots Dead Metal and Sergeant Bash, while Series 1 champion Roadblock used its rear-mounted saw to good effect as the first competitor to feature one. Roadblock's successor, Beast of Bodmin, and two-time Dutch Series Grand Finalist Lizzard were also able to use saws with considerable success, the latter in Dutch Series 2 only. Very few competitor robots were actually given true circular saws, despite some roboteers and Robot Wars staff members referring to various other rotating disc weapons as such. Definition *A circular saw is a small, thin disc-like weapon which has serrated edges all the way around its circumference. This is opposed to cutting discs, which have pointed edges integrated into the disc, and most flywheels, which usually have two or more teeth integrated or bolted onto the disc. They are primarily used to slice, grind and graze, unlike cutting discs which cut, slice and shred, and flywheels/heavy rotating blades which aim to gouge, tear and concuss other robots. Advantages and Disadvantages Advantages *Circular saws are very readily available from DIY or hardware stores, making them cheap yet effective choices for primary weapons. *They, like chainsaws and drills, are capable of a continuous attack. However, they tend to be much more potent and spectacular to watch than narrow drills and unreliable chainsaws, leaving very deep gashes through other robots and causing sparks to fly upon contact with metal armour. These qualities were regularly demonstrated by Dead Metal, especially following his Series 3 upgrade. *Because of their usually small size, they could easily be fitted onto moveable arms or mechanisms which could swing or move forwards, in order to maximise the saw's damage potential and offer the opportunity for an effective weapon or self-righting synergy. This, again, is best demonstrated by Dead Metal's saw, which moved on a forward-firing head assembly to facilitate attacks, with Haardvark and Disruptor being among the few competitors to feature arm-mounted saws. *They are highly capable of causing damage to exposed components such as wheels, tracks and aerials. Both Dead Metal and Roadblock were capable of regularly inflicting damage to other robots by targeting these components with their saws. *They are especially effective against fragile armour such as wood, fur and polycarbonate, as Dead Metal and Roadblock again demonstrated on several occasions. Disadvantages *Circular saws could easily break or go blunt, especially if they were made out of hardened steel. This was particularly telling in Sergeant Bash's saw, which broke off or shattered numerous times during Series 1, and was eventually removed ahead of his Series 3 redesign. *Circular saws required sustained contact with an opponent in order to inflict substantial amounts of damage, as opposed to the more instantaneous damage inflicted by vertical flywheels. The same issue also affects the similarly-sized cutting discs. *In later series, they became increasingly inefficient against tougher and more resilient armour, requiring significant upgrades or complete replacement in order to deal enough damage. *Like other disc weapons, they had a very narrow range of attack, requiring precise driving or a separate gripping/lifting weapon to hold robots in place for it to attack properly. Dead Metal's pincers circumvented this shortcoming, allowing him/her to grab competitors while sawing away at their armour, wheels or chassis. *As with cutting discs, they could easily be dislodged or detached if they were not attached properly. Dead Metal's saw flew off at one point during the Extreme 2 Minor Meltdown, while Brutus Maximus regularly lost its saws due to sustained damage from its opponents, and Sweeney Todd lost its saws due to damage from PP3D. List of Robots with Circular Saws Robots are listed alphabetically. Robots which are not heavyweight entries are listed with a green background. House Robots are listed with a yellow background. Category:Weapon Types Category:Robots with Circular Saws